Lakeshore Christian Church

#TrustGodsPlan

“You see all the connections? You see all the working of the plan? You see all the teaching lessons he had for us all along the way so that we could be a people who trust him to keep his promises. If he loved us enough to plan that in response to our rebellion and our sin because he loved us that much, should we ever doubt his care, his provision, his plan, his purpose for our lives. We have every reason to trust this god who worked through all of history to bring it to that place.”

#MakeTodayCount

“You can't make course correction to your legacy after you die. It doesn't that way. It has to be done while you're alive. And if you're aware that you're writing your legacy, and it's not right now what you would want it to be, then thank God that you've got life and breath and opportunity today to start making course correction. That's by the grace of God that he's allowed all of us today to have that opportunity to make course correction in our lives.”

#ResistTheWorld

“here's what I know. Even if you give your life to Jesus, if you just allow yourself after that to just kinda go with the flow, where is the flow gonna take you? Back into the pattern of the world. You have to fight against the flow. You have to fight against the pressures that are trying to mold you into the pattern of the world so that you can be changed into the pattern of Christ and what Christ wants for your life.”

#FaithInAction

“Here's the approach most Christians take today. I just try to be the best example I can be and leave it at that. Well, I do want you to be a good example. God wants you to be a good example, but they will never come to know Jesus like that. You can't come to Jesus without hearing about Jesus. It's a combination of both of those things. It's being genuine in how you live it, but also saying the words.”

#ServantLeadership

“The mature follower of Jesus gets out of the consumer mindset and takes on the role of the servant. And when we take on the role of a servant, if I'm doing that, then I'm no longer demanding my preferences and my way. And if other people do that, they're not doing that either. So what happens? Unity happens as a result. Nobody's fighting for this or fighting to get their own way. Everybody is humbly serving in the community the way God has called us and designed us to serve. So there's no division when that happens. There's no conflict between members when that happens when we're just looking to serve. That's maturity.”

#SacrificialLove

“Is your love real? Is it genuine? And if it is, you'll be willing to sacrifice for what you say you love. If we say we love god, we love Jesus, we love his church, shouldn't we be willing to give of ourselves Even in a sacrificial way. Because who set that example for us? Jesus did. See, that's how we know what this looks like.”

#RunToGod

“One of the most important things for us to share with others as a witness to Jesus is that freedom, true freedom is not found in running from God. True freedom is found in running to God. And we are people that have run to God. And when we got there, we found a father with his arms wide open with love to welcome us into his family. The world needs to hear that message.”

#RootedInChrist

“that we need to be deeply rooted in Christ in order for our faith to be a lasting faith. Because we're gonna face trials, we're gonna face challenges, we're gonna have the enemy at work against us. And if we don't have deep roots in Christ, then it's easy for us to drift away, to fall away, to not stay consistent in that walk with Christ.”

#GodsWordOverCircumstances

“Only god's word gives us something greater than our circumstances. Relief comes when we stop allowing our circumstances to have the final word. If our circumstances have the final word, fear will often win. But when god's word has the final word, faith can rise. That doctor's report may be real. The financial difficulty may be real. The broken relationship may be real. The disappointments may be real, but none of those things are greater than God. Romans ten seventeen teaches us to continually bring our hearts back to what God has said. God's word moves us from fear towards faith. Faith grows when we hear God's word, and as faith grows, fear loses some of its power.”

#RootedNotReactive

“So your decisions now aren't based on what's happening around you, aren't based on your environment, they aren't based on your mood. They're based on your relationship with him and what he, as lord of your life, teaches about those things. Too many times, we let our emotions overrule those roots we have in Christ. We just don't feel like doing that today. We don't feel like showing respect and honor to someone who's not showing respect and honor to us. We don't feel like forgiving when somebody has hurt us. Of course, we don't. Nobody feels like doing that, but it's because you're rooted in Christ that you make a choice like that.”

#JesusIsLord

“You know what lord means? Lord. Ruler. The one with supreme authority over us. So when we're looking at life decisions, whose authority do they need to come under? Jesus. If he's lord of our lives, he's the one who rules over those decisions that we're making. We're not free agents to just pick and choose which parts we're gonna follow or not follow if we're disciples of Jesus Christ. His lordship is over every aspect of our lives.”

#BaptismPledge

“``Baptism is signing your name to the offer and agreement God offers you to be saved by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's that simple. It's not any more complicated than that. It doesn't take away from how important faith is. It doesn't take away from how important repentance is. It's not a work that earns your salvation. It is an acceptance. It's a pledge that you accept God's offer of the free gift of salvation on his terms, not on our terms.”

#RepentAndReturn

“``You see, that's what a lot of us do with our sin. We stay in the mud. We stay in the pigpen. We stay in the mess, and we're sorry, and we say, I need to get back to God. I need to go back to church. I need to get my life straightened out, but we don't actually take the step. Repentance isn't complete until we take the steps of coming back to the father and changing our life moving forward and treating sin differently than we used to treat it before.”

#FaithIsAssurance

“``Faith is assurance. It is certainty about what we can't see in advance. I don't know how this is gonna happen. My wife has a saying. I love it very much. I don't know how. I just know you. Right? When she's praying to God and talking to God. I don't know how this will work out. I don't know how it can work out, but I know you. I know I can trust you. That's faith. When you don't know how and you still trust God.”

#ImagineIfEveryoneParticipated

“``It's a question I think all Christian need to ask themselves before criticizing the church or neglecting the church, not being consistent as a part of the church, here's the question we need to ask. What would this church become if everyone contributed the way I do? Stop there for a moment. Gonna pause. What would Lakeshore since we're part of Lakeshore, what would Lakeshore Christian Church become if everyone participated like me? Every single person that belonged to the church belonged the way I belong. Would the church be friendlier if it was all like me? Would guests be welcomed if everybody participated like me? Would children be discipled? Would lonely people be noticed? Would ministries be strengthened? Would burdens be shared? Would prayer increase? Would encouragement multiply? Would pastors be refreshed and encouraged? Would the church be healthier if every other church member was like me?”

#PracticeNotJustPresence

“Friends, there are people attending church all over the world this morning who hear God's word. We're privileged in America. We can do this freely over and over again. We hear God's word over and over again. We could sit and hear it anytime. We've got on the Internet now access to resources where we can hear God's word anytime we want. You can hear from the best preachers in the world anytime just by clicking on the Internet, sharing God's word anytime you wanna hear it. And that's not the key to living the life God wants you to live if that's all you do. That's deceiving yourself. It's making you think I'm gonna have the blessings of God in my life because I hear God's word all the time. It's not just about hearing God's word. Don't deceive yourselves.”

#DecideAboutJesus

“``It's either the most important decision you're ever gonna make or it doesn't matter at all because Jesus is a fraud. That's the choice we're faced with, every one of us. It's the choice our family is faced with, the people we love and care about. It's the choice your friends and your coworkers are left with even if they don't wanna have to make the choice. That's something we all have to choose. What do we do with this Jesus guy? Peter made a confession in Caesarea Philippi. You're the Messiah, the son of the living God. This statement has been quoted by millions since then. Even here at Lakeshore, you've heard people come up front, and I've asked them to repeat a profession of their faith. This is the profession we ask them to repeat because that is the decision you have to make if you're gonna know and follow Jesus according to scripture.”

#KnowJesus

“``If you wanna know what God's like, go back to the bible and read more about the life and the ministry and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That is god revealing himself to us in the most intimate, tangible way possible. God came here to rescue us in the flesh in his son, Jesus. We are able to know who God is and what God is like in the most intimate way when we study the life and the teachings of Jesus.”

#FaithOverFear

“``Thank you Tito for letting me speak today. I'm very excited to be here and to try something new. It's a little nerve wracking to be up here speaking to you all, but I believe this is a great opportunity to trust God and give him glory. This moment feels a lot like the time I went to a theme park with family when I was 11. There was this roller coaster called The Hulk and I was very excited to ride it until I got in line. And all of a sudden, I was terrified.”

#ActiveDads

“I think one of the things that has hurt families more than anything else, and this is not to lay a guilt trip on anybody, it's to encourage us to do better here. And that is that so many dads in the culture pictured on sitcoms and television and movies and things like that, they are passive in their families. They just kinda sit back and let the other people run the show, so to speak. Now, don't mean there should be competition on who's running things. I just mean, dads, God designed you to be involved in this, to be part of the raising up of your children and teaching of your children. He wants fathers to be actively involved in raising these children that are coming behind us.”

#ValuesOverFeelings

“Just listen to your heart. Right? Just listen to your heart. There's a problem with the scripture teaches that's not a good standard because the heart, it says, is deceitful in so many ways. Because the way that we use the word heart involves our emotions so much. I feel like this is right. I feel like this is what I should do. And if you don't have established values separate from your emotions, then the emotional investment you have in your feelings is gonna establish your lifestyle. Everything's gonna be dictated by your feelings.”

#GlorifyGodInWork

“Could they say that about us and our workplace? As we do business with people in the marketplace, could they say, I'd rather deal with a Christ follower than anybody else in the workplace? Getting back that kind of reputation, not for ourselves. Remember, look at what he says. They may see your good deeds and do what? Glorify who? Your father in heaven. Not you, your father in heaven. You're not doing this to elevate yourself. If you are, it's not gonna come across the right way. But if you do it to bring glory and honor to god, that will show.”

#ScriptureFirst

“The first step is to go to God's word, not your friends, not your family, but to God's word. And ask yourself this question, Are there scriptural grounds there to even pursue a divorce? We're gonna talk about God's word does talk about divorce and some spiritual some scriptural grounds for divorce. So that's where you start if you're thinking about a divorce. Am I in line with scripture here on even considering a divorce in my situation? There was a judge who was interviewing a woman regarding her pending divorce, and he asked her, what are the grounds for your divorce? And she said, oh, about four acres on a nice little house in the middle of the property.”

#TakeTheFirstStep

“I want you to catch this. He's talking to Christ followers, to those who who are of the faith that wanna be what Jesus is calling them to be, follow his teaching. He's saying if you wanna follow my teaching, who needs to take the initiative to reconcile? You do. You need to take the first step if you are a Christ follower. You're not waiting on the other person. If you know there's conflict, if you know there's animosity, if you know there's there's something there that's not where it needs to be, you take the step of going to them and trying to reconcile with them.”

#GodCanRestore

“Maybe you're at a point right now, though, listening to this message, you think, we can't fix this. And I want you to hear me. You can't, but God can. I've seen God heal what looked like terribly broken marriages over and over again. We've got people here in our church family who actually were already divorced Mhmm. And God reconciled their marriage, and they came back together in a marriage before God and have had a blessed marriage moving forward.”

#RaiseKidsForGod

“They can live all of their lives without god, without the teachings of the scripture, and they can be successful in the eyes of the world without any of that. But all of our kids are gonna stand before god one day and give an account for their lives like all of us are gonna stand before god and give an account for ours. So because of judgment, we need to tell them the truth, but not just because of judgment, but because while they are here on this Earth before they face judgment, don't you want them to have the best life that god's designed for them to have?”

#CompleteInChrist

“``Here's the thing. It's that idea that if you're single, you're not complete without somebody else that you're in a relationship with. And nothing could be further from the truth biblically speaking. You are to be complete in Christ whether you're married or single. You see, when two people get married, they should bring two complete people into that marriage, Not people that are incomplete into that marriage looking to be made complete by the marriage.”

#WordsThatBuild

“What would happen in your family, in your marriage, in your friendships if you just put this one thing into practice? Where you don't let anything come out of your mouth except what is truly helpful for building them up, helping them take the next steps they need to take with whatever situation they're facing. Friends, this one thing will radically transform a marriage, a friendship, a coworker relationship, a parent child relationship. It will transform any relationship if you just practice this one thing consistently.”

#JesusHoldsItTogether

“Now if in him all things hold together, what does that say about what happens when we take him out of the equation? What happens to all things? They fall apart, don't they? Why are relationships falling apart all around us all the time? Could it be that maybe we have not put Jesus where he belongs in those relationships. And we've not come under him as the creator and how we do relationships. We've not recognized who he really is. And how we do relationships has nothing to do with Jesus then.”

#UntrainedButEffective

“This woman knew very little about Jesus, but she was still qualified. How do we know she was qualified? Because she brought more people to see Jesus than his own disciples did. And they had spent three years with Jesus, learning from him, watching his example, growing in their knowledge and understanding of the things of god. And this woman was more effective in bringing people to Jesus than they were when she went into that town. Sometimes I think our education gets in the way of us just talking about Jesus and bragging on Jesus.”

#ApostlesDiedForResurrection

“So the other two possibilities make much less sense than the fact that Jesus actually did raise raise from the dead. That's the only reason they would have been saying that testimony and keeping that testimony even while they were being threatened by their own lives, being taken away from them for their testimony. You know how it happens if you've watched court cases before. When it comes down to saving their own skin, most witnesses end up coughing up. Right? The the the real truth about what had happened. Well, all of these witnesses that were threatened and executed, every one of the apostles ended up dying for this testimony. They all stayed consistent in claiming Jesus' resurrection.”

#PassTheFaith

“He says, that's a given. We're gonna tell people about this. We're gonna tell the next generation about the greatness of god. Here's the thing, Christianity is always just one generation away from extinction. Think about that. It's always just one generation away from extinction. If one generation fails to pass it on to the next, it will stop there.”

#SeekAndSave

“What was the mission of Jesus? He told us clearly, I came to seek and to save the lost. That's the mission. And at first, as these churches were planted, they were planted with that mission as the core of who they were. When when Paul traveled to Ephesus and that church was started there, it was started rooted in that mission. And that's how Lakeshore got started. That's what it was all about. And we celebrated last year fifty years as a church, and that that's that's been the the guiding force has been the mission that God has called us to as a church. But here's the thing, other things start taking priority, and we lose that first love.”

#UnshakableKingdom

“So we need to learn to remind ourselves regularly because we are humans in the flesh and we forget and we get off track. We need that constant reminder that he has already overcome the world for us. That work is already done, finished, and complete. And we are citizens of heaven, and that kingdom cannot be shaken no matter what happens here. Nothing's gonna shake that kingdom. Nothing's gonna disturb that kingdom. Nothing's going to cause that kingdom to crumble ever.”

#HolySpiritBalance

“So many times, we and churches get it way too far to one extreme or the other when it comes to the Holy Spirit. One of the things we often do in churches today, and I wasn't part of this group. I didn't grow up in church or anything, but but there's a a wing of Christianity, you might call it, that that made everything about the Holy Spirit. But but what they did in that wing was they would try to manufacture the working of the Holy Spirit themselves. Right? You pray until you get the spirit. You you do all these things until you see the spirit work, and you can get you can get gifts if you seek the gifts and really work at it and practice that and and like, we're controlling the holy spirit. See, that's one extreme. That's not scripturally what Jesus told us to do. There's the other extreme though that I think most of the churches I've been connected to, most of our movement goes to the other extreme, and that is you don't talk much about the Holy Spirit.”

#SetSailsForRevival

“Why did they put up the sail anyway? So they could catch the wind when it comes. I want us to set ourselves for revival. I want us to get ready for revival and let God work in us and through us. But friends, if we're gonna allow god to bring that into our church, into our communities, into our nation, it begins with us personally. We have to have our hearts right. We have to have our lives ready. We need to have our sails set personally because we are the church.”

#ChoicesBuildLives

“Maybe you've seen this meme before. I just saw it again this week and it goes right along with our message today. It says this, everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is you're stupid and make bad decisions. The legendary actor John Wayne said it this way, life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid. I'm not trying to call any of us stupid, and the bible doesn't do that, but the bible does clearly teach that we often make bad choices. And if we want our lives to be better, we have to learn to make better choices because the choices we make build the lives that we have.”

#CreatedOnPurpose

“You see, he brought you into this world, into existence with a plan and a purpose for your life. You're not here by accident. I don't care what the world tries to sell you on that. You are here by the design of the creator God with a plan and a purpose for your life. And the worst thing you can do is start listening to the lies that you're just an accident and and you don't even really have any reason for being here. You just gotta make the best of it. What a miserable way to live because you end up treating yourself and others so terribly when you think that's what your life is about.”

#FaithfulOverPerfect

“If you could pick one word, I could tell you this. When you stand before the Lord in the end, the one word you're gonna wanna hear is faithful. Not perfect, but faithful. You see, Jesus makes us perfect, but we choose whether or not we're gonna be faithful with what God has given us. But what does it mean to be faithful? Right? What does that look like? How do we live that concept out in day to day real life?”

#DoMoreWithWhatYouHave

“``They're not looking for what's the least amount I can do. Their mindset is how much can I do with what god has entrusted to me? See, they're always looking for the opportunity to do the most good they could do with what god has given them. That's a whole different mindset. What's the most good I can do with this? To help others, to bless others, to make a difference.”

#PreDecideToAbide

“``I think a lot of times we we feel like we're just not close with God. We're not really living the life that God wants us to. And I think that's true for Christians and non Christians alike. We feel sometimes a disconnect from God. And what we're gonna be talking about today is how we can make a decision, pre decide to be close to God, and what that looks like if we pre decide that's what we wanna be doing with our lives.”

#PredecideYourWhy

“``But we've got to predecide that's who we're gonna be. Alright. Here's the first thing we need to do. Predecide to start with your why you're gonna do what you say you're gonna do. Start with your why. Why did Daniel pray consistently? It wasn't for outward show. It wasn't to say to people, look how religious I am. That's not why Daniel did this. Daniel was consistent in prayer because he believed in the God he was praying to. He pre decided he wanted to honor that God because he trusted that God to love him and want what's best for him.”

#HonorGodFirst

“``Oh, but you gotta be looking for it, friends. You have to want it. You have to decide, predecide, I want to honor god with my life. So, with every temptation, I'm gonna be looking for what god provides for me as the way out of this so that I don't end up hurting me or others and especially that I don't sin against god. You see that sin cost him the life of his son, the blood of Jesus on the cross. Grace is free to us but it's not cheap. It cost god everything to offer us the forgiveness that he gives us.”

#PreDecideObedience

“When we pre decide to obey god's word, listen to me. It will always, always be in god's will. If you pre decide to be obedient to god's word, it will always be god's will for you to do what god's word teaches you to do. Always. There are no exceptions to it. There are no but but what if I've got this going on? What if that? It doesn't matter. This is god's will revealed in god's word. It will apply to every circumstance of your life.”

#FindAndFollowJesus

“``You see, if you're searching in your life, looking for what God wants for you, I can tell you this. The most important thing God wants for you is to find Jesus and then to follow Jesus when you find him. There's nothing more important to the Father than you coming to know and follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”

#JesusPaidItAll

“This is God loving us enough to say, I won't leave you in your sin. I won't allow that sin to destroy you. I will not allow sin to have the victory here. I will not allow sin to take away your joy and your peace. I'm not going to let you live like that without having the opportunity to choose to accept the gift that I want to give you, which is I can forgive you of your sin by having someone else pay it for you. Someone else can pay the price for you and the only one who could is the one who had no sin of his own and that's Jesus.”

#SaviorForEveryone

“this announcement is about the savior being born the thing that their nation had been looking forward to for ages and the birth announcement doesn't come to the palace and it doesn't come to the high and the mighty the birth announcement comes to the lowly shepherds out on the hillside God's sending a message isn't he that this savior is for everybody this is not just for the privileged this is not just for everybody that would think I deserve to be acknowledged by God this is for the people who least expect it that God would send this message that a savior has been born to you too to everybody”

#LovedAndTransformed

“See, here's the thing. God does love you just like you are. You can come to Him just like you are but He doesn't want to leave you where you are. His plan is to transform you into His image which is the process of repentance and change and obedience that comes along with making things right with the Lord. This is not to earn your salvation. Jesus did that on the cross. This is to honor God and fulfill your purpose and plan that God has for your life that you repent, that you get in line with the teachings of Scripture.”

#EveryGiftCounts

“Most of our offerings most of what we we are able to do ministry with and and help people with it comes from a lot of smaller donations a lot of smaller gifts and you think my little bit won't matter but here's what you have to remember god takes that faithfulness from you and he adds it to that faithfulness from that person and that faithfulness from that person and when he put it all together god does amazing things with those gifts and this church is truly blessed by so many people just consistently giving even smaller amounts that are significant for them that that are sacrifices for them but they commit to that and they sacrifice to do it and when you combine it with the others god does amazing work.”

#ConsistencyCreatesImpact

“I'm consistently saying this: consistency over time produces or equals impact. Consistency over time equals major impact. That's true in any area of life and it's true especially when it comes to our finances and following God's plan for our finances. The wisdom of God is so great that if we will be disciplined enough to follow it consistently over time, we will see huge impact for the kingdom of God.”

#QualityOfLifeNotSalvation

“So, sometimes we hear, oh, you're awful because of all the debt you've got, and it's an awful thing, and we're going to talk about that, but it's not a sinful thing to have debt. So, it's not that your salvation depends on whether or not you have debt or not. That's not what we're talking about here. But what we are talking about is the quality of life God wants you to have. That's what we're talking about here. He loves you. He wants you to have a good quality of life here and in eternity.”

#LiveWithinYourMeans

“The desire for the appearance of wealth can cause us to get ourselves where we're pierced with many griefs because we've made those decisions. And when we do that, don't ever stop and think, I need to blame God. He's not taking care of me. That's not God that did that to you. I don't make as much as they make. Well, what God taught you in his word was be faithful with what you do make. Manage that well.”

#WorkIsPurpose

“We are actually designed by our creator in our mother's womb, partly for the purpose of doing work. It's not a curse to work. In fact, it's by God's design and God's blessing that we get to work, that we are creatures of work.”

#LiveWithExpectancy

“Since we know that this is going to happen, we should be expectant. We should live with expectancy in our lives. Now what are we expecting? We're expecting the bridegroom to come for his bride, for Christ to come for his church. We should be living every day expecting that to happen.”

#HumbleFaithMatters

“We need to learn, because it's a godly characteristic, to be humble. And we live in a world that has sure gotten away from that concept that humility is a good thing. Now, it's kind of always been that way for some people, but I think in our culture today, we see less and less promotion of the idea of being humble in your life. And so we have to battle against that as Christ followers.”

#PatientMercyInAction

“God's goodness is not distant or detached. It is active and patient. Even when the tenants mistreat his servants, he persists in sending more, giving opportunity after opportunity for repentance. This mirrors how God sent prophets to Israel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, calling them back to a covenant of faithfulness in our lives. His goodness manifests in daily mercies like forgiveness for sins, provision in need, and the gift of salvation.”

#PrioritizeKingdomSacrifice

“So God deserves our willingness to make this decision. See if you agree with me, he wants us to reach lost people. He wants us to seek and save the lost right, to make disciples of all people. Maybe we could all decide we're going to be all in on that with God, whatever that looks like, whatever it takes, whatever we can do to help make that happen, to stay faithful and true to God's call on us as a church.”

#RedeemYourTime

“The point of that verse is to realize your days are already numbered, so learn wisdom to live those days in the best possible way. That's what a heart of wisdom is all about. Make the best use of every day that God gives us.”

#ReleaseUnforgivenessEmbraceHealing

“Some of you have been nursing unforgiveness from something in your past for a long long time now and you're still holding on to unforgiveness from something even a while back. There are others of us here today where there's been a very recent hurt an offense an injustice that you've just recently suffered and right now you're trying to work through how to respond to that how to process that what do you do with that now that you're feeling what you're feeling as a Christ follower how do you still honor Christ how do you still become the witness he wants you to be and deal with this the way he wants you to deal with it.”

#PowerInTheSeed

“You see, when you sow the seed of the gospel, the power is in the seed, it's not in the sower. Did you understand that? It's the seed that has the power to produce the harvest, not the sower. So you don't have to be a particular person of a particular background to be able to do this. You just need to do what he's telling us to do without excuse.”